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This too shall pass is a famous line often said by people when going through tough situations. While many people use this phrase and attribute it to the Word of God, the reality is that this line is never spoken of in the Bible. There is no “This too shall pass bible verse” in any
translation of the Bible in existence today. This obviously may come as a surprise to some however in the Bible there is a Bible verse in 2 Corinthians that speaks on our troubles not lasting forever and that these troubles and situations that we are faced with actually help to produce a glory that vastly outweighs any of them.

The actual Biblical version of the “This too shall pass bible verse” is shown below. I will show it in 3 popular translations of the Bible so that you can get a good representation of how it very closely reflects the mistaken verse.

NLT – New Living Translation

2 Corinthians 4: 17-18 “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever. So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

NIV – New International Version

2 Corinthians 4: 17-18 “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

KJV – King James Version

2 Corinthians 4: 17-18 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

10 Responses to “This Too Shall Pass Bible Verse”

[...] apparently often thought to be a phrase directly from the Bible. This is so much the case that one Bible concordance website includes a search for the phrase, only to point out that it does not actually come from the Bible. [...]

Thank you for this wonderful article and three different translations. However, notice that there is an editing error in the last, King James, version: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are net seen:”

Appreciate the article. I knew “This too shall pass” was not in the Bible, but 2nd Corinthians, and actually all of Corinthians is one of my favorite areas of the Bible. I’m new to your site, but I’m going to check out more of your articles.

I believe that the person who put this phrase into the popular parlance was none other than Abraham Lincoln, who did not attribute it too the Bible but who probably understood the Biblical insights that support this way of thinking. He used this phrase to end a speech which he gave to some farmers in Wisconsin. His words were as follows:

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.”